Price mark-up on the street sales of prescription pharmaceuticals in Australia

ABSTRACT

Background: This study aims to compare the price difference between the official price for pharmaceutical drugs and the price when sourced from the black market in Australia.

Methods: Drug prices recorded on the StreetRx database between 2014 and June 2018 were retrieved and the base pharmacy dispensed price was also retrieved from the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) website. The difference in Australian dollars between the street and base pharmacy dispensed prices for each mg of drug was calculated and the price mark-up per mg for each drug was compared.

Results: 2704 reports were made for Australia between 2014 and 2018 on StreetRx. Buprenorphine accounted for 26% of all reports. After the number of reports for each drug was adjusted to their respective defined daily dose (DDD)/1000 persons/day bromazepam was the most commonly reported drug with 413.2 reports per DDD/1000/day, clonazepam (399.9), lisdexamphetamine (177.1) and oxycodone (138.4), respectively. The mark-up on opioids was the highest. Of the opioids, fentanyl’s median price mark-up per mg was the highest (90 AUD).

Conclusion: This study has shown that users of prescription medication pay a significant mark-up for those drugs on the street. This is a measure of the perceived value by those misusing drugs.

KEYWORDS:

• Black market
• opioid
• benzodiazepine
• stimulants
• price

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council through the Translational Australian Clinical Toxicology Program, grant number: 1055176.